Stupid mechanical things you have done that cost you HP......

[468LC]

Ok before I started going to the track last year I decided to go ahead and put on an FRPP 65mm T/B and egr spacer. Well I got in a hurry at the time and wanted to bolt the thing on starting late at night so I could drive into work with it the next day and flog it. I get everything together to install the parts and I figured I would have it done in less than an hour. I start digging through the boxes and the FRPP kit comes with all the gaskets but they forgot the egr spacer to upper intake gasket. So I figure well I have to drive this thing so I will just reuse my original one which came off in one piece. I got it all put together and I also put on my 75mm Pro M(at the time) while I was at it. The car ran great I must say. I ran it this way all season at the track plus about 8k miles of commuting.

Well I had to go back into the upper intake area a while back and this time the egr spacer gasket was not reusable so I got a new one from ford.

ALL THE SUDDEN THE LIGHT BULB WENT OFF IN MY HEAD. I was using a 62mm(or whatever stock is) gasket the whole season which basically negated any gains of putting the t/b on in the first place.

The moral of the story is to pay attention to what you are doing even when in a hurry.

LOL I'm probably the only guy out there with a ported egr spacer gasket. :D

[root]

I think I may be the winner of this contest.

I did my car all at once, the engine, tranny, rear end, interior, ect. It took me 4 months of work and I was happy with how it all turned out.

To make a long story short I installed my mass air meter backwards. The car ran like shi*t, I was flipping out! I was even thinking about storing it.

One day I was checking everything and I thought that the mass air needed to be cleaned. I take it down and I thought that the small end facing towards the air filter looked odd. I called Granatelli and sure enought I had it on backwards :(

I flipped it around, the car started right up and it drove great until my tranny exploded :)

Ian

[468LC]

LOL Ian I did almost the exact same thing with my C&L.
I put one of my sample tubes on backwards and holy hell that thing ran like crap.

[root]

LOL well then we are tied :)

Ian

[Doug]

I painted my aluminum heads on my motor so people would think they were stock. When I attempted to start the car, all it would do was try to start and backfire through the intake. Mental note. ALWAYS REMOVE THE TAPE FROM THE EXHAUST PORTS AFTER PAINTING.
Doug

[Hella Good]

.. but costed my dad a race. Coulda been worse..

My father campaigned a '61 Studebaker Lark convertible with a BB Chevy back in the 70's and 80's and at one point we redid the inside of the car with a brand new carpet and some upholstery (It was an all steel car that we tried to keep intact as a nostalgia piece, and ran 11.40's faithfully- hey this was 1970's guys, no bottle, aftermarket heads or all the stuff we take for granted now). My dad tasked his then 15 year old son (who shall remain nameless) to reassemble the gauges.

Imagine his surprise when the oil pressure gauge ruptured at 100 plus MPH. Inside the car.

I always thought the word "ferrule" was a funny word. Sure learned a lot about "ferrules" after that one.